Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Greta]

Hmmm...you must have had a weird issue with your giftcard. We used gift cards for all mobile orders earlier this month with no issue...odd.

I’m so glad to hear this. That made me nervous

 

[only hope]

When you say graveyard you mean the interactive queue? That's open now
They don't have the physical space to do one Room with pre show and the other as a walk through

It wasn’t open the two times I’ve been to MK. Glad to hear it’s open sometimes. Maybe only when the line is long? Or maybe I just have bad timing.

 

[tussking]

I just purchased my tickets and booked reservations. I must admit I am excited. Can I get suggestions? Arriving @ Epcot around noon tomorrow and MK Thursday open to close. What time does the toll booth open for parking? What time does the boat or monorail start from the Visitor Center? Looking for the best plan and opinions. Thanks!

 

[Darcy03231]

Finally built up the courage to take my teens to Epcot (Wednesday) & MK (Thursday). Has there been any cases reported after visiting Disney? Do you all feel safe sleeping in a hotel? Just trying to get a feel. I usually travel 75+ nights a year for work and stay in hotels. It feels so odd to me. It's been 7 months. Any tips for hotels? Any tips for Epcot & MK? Thanks in advance.

There was someone on another thread on these boards that reported she and her family came down with COVID after a WDW trip. Not sure if they got it at WDW, airport, airplane, bus, etc.

 

[silver236]

Just got back from a 5 day trip. 1 night BWV, and three nights Poly. Arrived Friday at noon. That was our Epcot day. Would have been awesome if it weren't for me renting from Budget rental car for the last time. Even still, got on everything except frozen (not a big deal for us) three Cabeleros (there was always a line to get into the pavillion), and Test track (broke down when we were on the loading platform and it never went back up), ate everything from F/W we wanted. I did realize how much I rely on the Epcot shops to stop in and cool down on the hot days. So many of them are still closed.
Day 2 was a Saturday at HS. Day went really, really well. We had the advantage of staying at the boardwalk so we were one of the first ones in the park. Rode MMRR and MFSR before the park even opened. Got BG 42 (Bit of a scare when it went down on group 40-but it came back up and we got on). Rode everything at least once, including multiples on MFSR, RNRC, TSMM. Park was crowded in the afternoon so we spent the high point snacking waiting for the times to go down.
Day 3 (Sunday) was at AK. Drove over from the Poly. We hit the headliners early doing FOP, RJ, EE (2) before the crowd built. Spent the afternoon during the high crowds doing the trails, checking out all the small details and exhibits that we always skip, got a quick run Kali, and when the waits went down hit everything else including two more rides on FOP (almost got a fourth but missed it by 4 minutes).
Day 4 (yesterday) was at MK. We've been watching the wait times for a few weeks for weekdays at MK. They reflected NOTHING like what we saw yesterday. It was hell. We got there right away and got on Pirates, BTMR, and Splash and Haunted Mansion. By the time we got off of Splash the wait times across the park had exploded and the walkways were packed. At one point we even saw a wait time of 45 minutes for the carousel of progress!!! We hit a few short waits that would pop up, and actually went back to the room to re-shower and get fresh masks because it was extremely hot and humid. Got back and did a posted 45 minute wait for Space Mountain because it was the lowest posted all day (actually ended up being 60). The thunderstorm actually helped us out. We got in line for IASW right before the lightning (we were watching out weather app) so we missed the onslaught of the rain. We both had waterproof sandals and raincoats with us so we hiked over the Little Mermaid and got on that. Luckily the rain cleared a lot of people out so we managed to get on quite a few on our list but not all. We were so tired this morning we decided to just hang in the room before heading to the airport. Not sure what the anomaly was at MK on Monday because the posted wait times today were a fraction of what they were yesterday.

My takeaways:
Masks make it feel 10 degrees warmer
The cast members are always incredible and were on our trip
Disney needs to get shows open. It is my honest opinion they are not taking these closures into account in what their "capacity" is. There were just too many people in MK yesterday. I'm actually wondering if it was a computer glitch somewhere.
Seeing the musicians and dancers last night at Raglan Road made our trip.
If this is your first trip to WDW, do NOT go. It's fun but so much is missing.

We had a great time. Going to re-evaluate when we are going back and see how this progresses.

 

[hlrubin507]

We went to HS today. Took a Lyft from Pop at 8:05am to the Speedway, tell the driver to pull through all the pumps and go to the back exit which is across the street from the entrance to the Boardwalk. You have to cross the street without a crosswalk, but there is little Traffic and the sidewalk is right there. We started walking towards the pathway about 8:05 and arrived at the first holding point at 8:15am. There were probably 20 people there. Around 8:45 we were able to start walking to temperature check where we waited about 15-20 min. We were first through the tent, go to the tents on the left side, lines seem shorter there. We arrived at the queue for MMRR about 9:10 And the cast member announced they would not be starting the ride until close to Park scheduled opening time, ugh. We were the 10th people in line.

At 9:30, they opened the doors and we went inside. Made it to the last holding room and waited until 9:50 to get into the loading room. On the ride at 9:52, off at 9:58, stayed in the exit area and got BG 10 for Rise.

We had a much different experience on Tuesday. Railroad was up and running at 9:10am, rode it, walked to SDD, waited about 15 minutes, rode, walked back to Brown Derby area at 9:55, got BG 17.

This is fascinating! You were staying at a Skyliner resort and it sounds like you got your serious game on by NOT using the Skyliner and doing this instead. I love it! I'm going to copy you (although I'm staying off property). Thank you so much for the detailed information as Google maps says it's a 1.1 mile/23 minute walk from Speedway to the entrance and I'm not looking to add miles to my day on purpose

 

[Shinrai]

Just got back from a 5 day trip. 1 night BWV, and three nights Poly. Arrived Friday at noon. That was our Epcot day. Would have been awesome if it weren't for me renting from Budget rental car for the last time. Even still, got on everything except frozen (not a big deal for us) three Cabeleros (there was always a line to get into the pavillion), and Test track (broke down when we were on the loading platform and it never went back up), ate everything from F/W we wanted. I did realize how much I rely on the Epcot shops to stop in and cool down on the hot days. So many of them are still closed.
Day 2 was a Saturday at HS. Day went really, really well. We had the advantage of staying at the boardwalk so we were one of the first ones in the park. Rode MMRR and MFSR before the park even opened. Rode everything at least once, including multiples on MFSR, RNRC, TSMM. Park was crowded in the afternoon so we spent the high point snacking waiting for the times to go down.
Day 3 (Sunday) was at AK. Drove over from the Poly. We hit the headliners early doing FOP, RJ, EE (2) before the crowd built. Spent the afternoon during the high crowds doing the trails, checking out all the small details and exhibits that we always skip, got a quick run Kali, and when the waits went down hit everything else including two more rides on FOP (almost got a fourth but missed it by 4 minutes).
Day 4 (yesterday) was at MK. We've been watching the wait times for. a few weeks for weekdays at MK. They reflected NOTHING like what we saw yesterday. It was hell. We got there right away and got on Pirates, BTMR, and Splash and Haunted Mansion. By the time we got off of Splash the wait times across the park had exploded and the sidewalks were packed. At one point we even saw a wait time of 45 minutes for the carousel of progress!!! We hit a few short waits that would pop up, and actually went back to the room to re-shower and get fresh masks because it was extremely hot and humid. Got back and did a posted 45 minute wait for Space Mountain because it was the lowest posted all day (actually ended up being 60). The thunderstorm actually helped us out. We got in line for IASW right before the lightning (we were watching out weather app) so we missed the onslaught of the rain. We both had waterproof sandals and raincoats with us so we hiked over the Little Mermaid and got on that. Luckily the rain cleared a lot of people out so we managed to get on quite a few on our list but not all. We were so tired this morning we decided to just hang in the room before heading to the airport. Not sure what the anomaly was at MK on Monday because the posted wait times today were a fraction of what they were yesterday.

My takeaways:
Masks make it feel 10 degrees warmer
The cast members are always incredible and were on our trip
Disney needs to get shows open. It is my honest opinion they are not taking these closures into account in what their "capacity" is. There were just too many people in MK yesterday. I'm actually wondering if it was a computer glitch somewhere.
Seeing the musicians and dancers last night at Raglan Road made our trip.
If this is your first trip to WDW, do NOT go. It's fun but so much is missing.

We had a great time. Going to re-evaluate when we are going back and see how this progresses.

For our upcoming trip we have a weekend booked very much like yours, with HS Saturday, AK Sunday and MK Monday. Sounds like MK was a mess on your Monday, but I'm crossing my fingers that the Sat & Sun parks go they way yours did!.

And I hear what you're saying about first timers vs the amount of stuff that is missing from the parks right now. We are first timers to WDW, and we gave that some serious thought before deciding to make our plans for our upcoming trip. For us, we decided that this being our first time to the parks, we won't really notice the "missing" elements as much as a park veteran might. We're Disneyland veterans, and when we think of returning to Disneyland under similar circumstances, it just makes us kind of sad. But, when we go to a new park we spend so much time wandering around looking at the theming and just taking everything in. We're also noticing that we're not feeling as overwhelmed with choices as we have in the past when considering a trip to WDW. So, we know we are going to miss out on some things, but we're still expecting to have a great trip! And, when we go again in a few years there will be a lot of "new" stuff for us to see.

 

[Naomeri]

For our upcoming trip we have a weekend booked very much like yours, with HS Saturday, AK Sunday and MK Monday. Sounds like MK was a mess on your Monday, but I'm crossing my fingers that the Sat & Sun parks go they way yours did!.

And I hear what you're saying about first timers vs the amount of stuff that is missing from the parks right now. We are first timers to WDW, and we gave that some serious thought before deciding to make our plans for our upcoming trip. For us, we decided that this being our first time to the parks, we won't really notice the "missing" elements as much as a park veteran might. We're Disneyland veterans, and when we think of returning to Disneyland under similar circumstances, it just makes us kind of sad. But, when we go to a new park we spend so much time wandering around looking at the theming and just taking everything in. We're also noticing that we're not feeling as overwhelmed with choices as we have in the past when considering a trip to WDW. So, we know we are going to miss out on some things, but we're still expecting to have a great trip! And, when we go again in a few years there will be a lot of "new" stuff for us to see.

That’s a great way to look at it!

 

[silver236]

This is fascinating! You were staying at a Skyliner resort and it sounds like you got your serious game on by NOT using the Skyliner and doing this instead. I love it! I'm going to copy you (although I'm staying off property). Thank you so much for the detailed information as Google maps says it's a 1.1 mile/23 minute walk from Speedway to the entrance and I'm not looking to add miles to my day on purpose

Yep, HS got REALLY busy on Sat around 11-3 and then after that it just emptied out. I think the heat sapped a lot of the energy from families with small kids.

 

[becks59]

Went to Epcot today and had a great day! Much better than MK yesterday. Waits were low and we rode everything we wanted. We got to the parking lot right when it opened. Went straight to TT. Not sure how long the wait was because we did rider switch. While dh and boys were doing that I took dd and baby to do FEA. It was about a 20min wait. Felt longer having to hold a baby and keep a 2 yr old in line though. . After that we did rider switch for TT and I rode with the boys. Rider switch has been really great this trip and the boys have loved riding things multiple times.

We went to regal eagle for lunch and it was delicious and such a great way to have a relaxing lunch in the A/C. We also got the gourmet Mac n cheese and lobster Mac n cheese from showplace. We all loved it. We got the kielbasa dish too and shared it with the kids. That was good too. Then we got the cake pops and I loved those. I just couldn’t spend time enjoying it though because we were rushing to get to the last ride of spaceship earth. It had broken down earlier right when we were about to get in line so we really wanted to ride it. But the cake pops were really good even eating them so quickly.

CMs have been great and very helpful. My son accidentally slammed into a big sign inside showplace and got knocked to the ground. He was crying and a CM came right over with a Powerade for him to help cheer him up.

Tomorrow is HS. It’s our first time seeing galaxies edge and I’m hoping for a boarding group! We will be with family who has card tickets. Can I scan them into my MDE to try and get a BG for all of us?

 

[Nightshiftplanner]

How were the Saturday crowds at AK? Do you think AK is a good choice for a Saturday? (Asking because I keep reading how Saturdays are horrible in the parks lately.)

It felt kind of crowded, but we rode all the rides and rode FOP and EE twice. We could have even ridden those a third time, so overall I felt that was really good considering it was a Saturday. I think the walk ways feel more crowded because of how they are lining people up.

 

[GG880]

We are headed down next Thursday (staying at the Swan) and I have a few questions about our day at Epcot, which is a Saturday so I expect it to be pretty crowded. What time does the IG begin letting guests in typically? Do the main gate and IG open at the same time? And more importantly will Les Halles be open immediately once they begin letting guests in? What about other F&W booths being open early? We are hoping to be among the first through the IG, hit up Les Halles and then maybe head to get in line for either TT or FEA.

Also, are they still doing the Kidcot travelers cards?

 

[Raven01]

Yikes...is that still happening?

Yes. Gift Card did not work with mobile order.

A side note - plan meals in advance. Pre covid meals were very fluid in the day or two leading up to the park day. Now, that’s not true. People cannot park hop so plans are not changing. Don’t count on a meal opening up. Availability the day of for restaurants needing reservations is limited. Generally, I’m finding we want a sit down, relaxing lunch, and prefer to “hodge podge“ dinner. The lunch helps break up the park day.

 

[*pixie*]

Disney owned stores had 30% for DVC members so I got the Lego Disneyland Train Station for $100 off at HS.

The DVC discount is good for LEGO’s?? We are not going to Hollywood Studios this trip, but I wonder if I can find the train station in another store??

 

[wilkydelts]

I went in and was playing with Mobile Ordering. They have completely removed the option to pay with a Gift Card or Disney Redemption Rewards Card. Very worried about this getting fixed!

 

[wilkydelts]

I have not been able to find a clear cut answer on this. F&W festival booths are all stand and wait correct, no mobile ordering for them? Also can you use a Disney Visa Rewards Redemption Card (talking about the bonus dollars redemption card) at the F&W booths to pay for food?

 

[yulilin3]

I have not been able to find a clear cut answer on this. F&W festival booths are all stand and wait correct, no mobile ordering for them? Also can you use a Disney Visa Rewards Redemption Card (talking about the bonus dollars redemption card) at the F&W booths to pay for food?

Yes and yes

 

[becks59]

Got to HS today and was in line for the parking tolls at 9:00am. Parked, got through security and tapstiles and in line for MMRR at 9:30. They told me that it was an 80min wait when I got in line. Actual wait time was 50min. Loved that ride so much!!!

At 10am we snagged BG 34 for RotR. I turned off location settings while in line and at 9:55 I reset the app. Watched the second hand on the Apple Watch and jumped for joy when we got it! It started boarding right away, but just went down. Crossing my fingers it gets up and going again soon.

 

[Khobbs18]

OK, weird question. My SIL can no longer go on our trip but a family friend can. Can we just keep the room, ticket, and park pass in the old name or do we have to switch to the new person's name? I am worried we will lose our HS park reservation if we go through all the hassle anyway...

 

[Akck]

The DVC discount is good for LEGO’s?? We are not going to Hollywood Studios this trip, but I wonder if I can find the train station in another store??

They had it at the Christmas Store at MK, however, a CM told us the 30% discount didn’t apply to it. Maybe she was wrong.